Category Archives: Korea

In the “You can’t make stuff this stupid up” department, a POSCO Energy board member, on a Korean Air flight from Incheon to L.A., was unhappy with his ramen so he reportedly whacked the flight attendant with a magazine.

Yeah.

Apparently, he first became unruly when he couldn’t get rice porridge and then became doubly incensed that the ramen he was given instead was too salty and not cooked properly.

Oh, and in a fit of defiance, he refused to buckle his seatbelt.

The pilot alerted U.S. authorities of the incoming knucklehead and, upon landing in L.A., Mr. Ramen was greeted by FBI agents and given the option to submit to questioning or return home. He took the next flight back –on another airline I would imagine.

Share this:

Like this:

Nice article and interview in the Joonang Ilbo today about Korean-American stage actor Michael Lee playing the lead in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Jesus Christ Superstar.

The title of the piece is, wait for it… “Korean-American resurrects role of Jesus in ‘Superstar'”

Lee is a veteran of the stage and has been involved with JC Superstar in various roles over the years.

Seeking to entrust the role of Jesus to someone with confidence, the organizer chose veteran Broadway musical actor Michael Lee, 39, who may be the only actor who has performed four of the roles in the musical. He first played Pontius Pilate in high school, then played Simon Zealotes, Judas Iscariot and Jesus Christ on Broadway.

You can check out the rest of the article for yourself here, and hear audio of the performance here. (Here, hear)

I never took much too to the church hymnals forced on me weekly by my parents (aside of “Morning has Broken” –coz Cat re-did it) but used to play my mother’s LP of the Superstar soundtrack quite a bit as a kid and quite enjoyed the title track. Perhaps because I could utter the word “hell” without upsetting dear ol’ mom.

I went back and read the KT article and even itdidn’t say anything about terrorism. Headline fail.

Update: Even though several in the comments section (as well as the entirety of the world media) have said it is not terrorism, the KT has not changed the headline yet and have actually added a photo next to the headline in the past few hours since I last checked. Maybe they know something others don’t?

Girl bands need to capture the attention of fans in a foreign market so it is essential to bare more skin,” said Kim Won, an expert in Korean entertainment and culture. “But a sexy concept has its limitations and singers must show a unique talent to stay competitive.

Girls’ Generation at the Busan film fest, sans pole –you can decide the lesser of two ‘innocents’.

The article cites several instances, such as the Girls’ Generation, “who appeal to fans in Korea with their innocent image,” performing a pole dance in Japan wearing outfits that look like lingerie.

The article also mentions T-Ara (pictured above) making the lingerie play to for the Japanese market. And you thought that ‘Easter in the Saloon’ look died out with the old west didn’t ya?

In fact, according to my limited research on the Interweb, much of the article seems spurious in its contrasts.

So those of you considering booking flights to Japan out of worry you can’t catch the provocative version of K-pop here on the peninsula, worry not –there is really no big difference from what’s happening on stages in the ROK.

The thing is, K-Pop is based on being provocative both in Korea and abroad. Sure, there’s great choreography, good voices and catchy tunes, but in the end it’s all about the appearance of the girls that are dancing, singing and performing and what they are wearing while doing it.

This is not some form of fine art for disgruntled neighbors (on both sides) to pick at and draw nuanced contrasts on. I can just see Michelangelo now, dishing comments to a reporter: “That damned DaVinci is showing more skin in his paintings! I’ll make a nude statue and show him who’s provocative!”

T-ara performing recently in Japan. Apparently there is video of some Japanese fans laughing at the girl 3rd from the left for having trouble rising from the “sexy squat dance.” Some nationalist netizens went nuts. Yeah.

Share this:

Like this:

Is PSY’s new video promoting the art of being obnoxious or a piece of clever commentary decrying how people treat each other? Or, is just PSY doing what he’s always done –pushing society’s buttons as we pay to watch him do it? Either way, a billion hits, here he comes.

BUSAN, South Korea — When I first heard PSY’s new song, “Gentleman”, I thought, “Meh, nothing special… not bad.” It will appease the big fans and is impressive enough for me that I won’t turn the dial when it comes on the radio.

And then I saw the video this morning and my take on the new tune went a bit deeper. While it’s very well produced and complements the catchy song, it did leave me unsure of the intended message. In a nutshell, the “Gentleman” video is basically 3:54 of PSY being randomly obnoxious to innocent bystanders, comprised overwhelmingly of women, as well as a group of kids on a soccer pitch.

Aside of it being interlaced with choreographed “Butt Dancing” in dozens of locales, the primary theme of the video is PSY playing the trickster with no regard for consequence. From “catching” a fart and throwing it in a stranger’s face in the library, to yanking off the top of sunbathers by the pool, it is an ode to obnoxiousness from near beginning to end. Is this trope a bit of clever satire or a validation to be obnoxious? Or is it simply PSY just being funny?

Aside of the obvious play on irony with the title “Gentleman”, no matter what the creative team behind the video might say it all means, we are only left with the imagery that we perceive as viewers and what we walk (or Butt Dance) away from it with.

The response on YouTube has been positive thus far, with 464,460 “likes” and62,829 “dislikes” at this writing, and looking well on its way to being another big hit for the 35-year-old rapper whose made his name in the ROK, for better than a decade, by pushing society’s more envelope through the vehicle of infectious tunes.

What message, if any, is PSY trying to get across?

We could ask how will this play in a male-dominated culture. For better or for worse Korea ranks 108th on the Global Gender Gap index sandwiched between two bastions of progressive liberalism, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates.

Be it the wealthy Korean national who told a Canadian divorce court last week about “an old saying that a woman before marriage will obey her father, a woman after marriage will obey her husband, and after giving birth to a son and the son is old enough, then a woman will be obedient to her son,” to the 2010 Korea National Survey of Domestic Violence and Sexual Violence that found “53.8 percent of respondents had experienced spousal abuse in the previous year,” and how 18 percent of the time police didn’t bother responding to the call.

Suffice it to say that abuse and discrimination towards women around the world is a pressing concern that vexes most of us to seemingly no end. A music video will certainly not remedy this, but the imagery of picking on women for laughs certainly doesn’t help.

It is interesting to note how, at the very beginning of the video, we see several much older Korean men on what is obviously a “girls’ day out” shopping. They carry brand name shopping bags through the store, they are finely groomed and manicured and they all end up sipping expensive caffeine in an outdoor cafe.

Is this where the clever commentary begins?

Or is the whole thing just a music video and I have wasted several minutes of your time for what might well be nothing more than column inches for commentators such as myself? Up to you, but it’s a worthy discussion topic considering PSY’s fame and influence now rivals icons such as Eminem, Chris Brown and others who catch hell for their portrayal of how people treat each other.

Will this induce more men around the world to more often be rude to others? Who knows, except that, sadly, it’s nothing new. Is this a chance for parents and peer groups to say, “Hey, douchebag, cut that out!” Hopefully so.

There is also the well publicized issue of bullying in South Korea where, in some cases, continued abuse at the hands of classmates has led to suicide. It’s become such a pressing issue that the current and previous president both vowed to aggressively address the problem. Bullies generally aren’t too bright, so they are unlikely to blame a music video in the principle’s office as a rationale for thuggish acts. But the obvious case is there if they wanted to make it after throwing a fart in a classmate’s face.

Perhaps PSY’s saving grace in this debate is that he is simply a really nice guy. If you’ve ever seen him interviewed, his demeanor and character are one of a humble and gracious man who, by all outward appearance, is a dedicated husband and father who would unlikely approve of the behavior in the video within his own circle. And there’s the wash. Why glamorize it, then? That’s not a question any of us can answer.

During one interview, as “Gangnam Style” was blazing across the planet, an English talk show host commented that PSY was wearing, those “little, tiny, what we call ‘lady socks’”.

To which PSY coyly replied, “You know, I don’t know why, but some lady things really fit for me.”

Oh well. Enjoy the video for what it is, which is entertainment, take from it what you will, which is what you would anyway, and by all means please, be nice to the ladies and to your classmates, OK?

He points to a Donga Ilbo poll last week, showing that “4.5 percent of South Koreans think North Korea means to start a war. In contrast, a CNN poll reveals that 51 percent of Americans think the latest round of name-calling will only end in war, and 41 percent think North Korea is an ‘immediate threat’ to the U.S.”

What for? asks Kang:

Reading the entire statements by the KCNA would actually give a fairly clear view of North Korea’s position. The problem is that most North Korean statements reported in the Western press are done so with the first clause missing. That is, almost all North Korean rhetoric is of the form “IF you attack us first, we will hit you back.” Incidentally, that’s what we’re telling the North Koreans, too.

If you can ignore the hilarious Communist-style rhetoric about ‘capitalist running dogs’ and the like, the situation is actually quite stable, because despite their bluster, the North Korean rhetoric is also cast almost entirely in deterrent terms.

Like this:

BUSAN, South Korea — With the final coffin nail being hammered into Asiana Airlines’ dress code this week and the last of Korea’s flight attendants finally given the option to wear trousers, persistent questions once again arise: Does the way your flight attendant looks or dresses have any impact on your travel preference?

In other words, does sex sell?

Most asking the question are doing just that, asking. As yet, there is no conclusive evidence showing that how much skin your flight attendant flashes or how much six-pack a male model displays actually affects your purchase of the product they are shilling. But that doesn’t mean the airline industry, and nearly every other industry, will not continue to work something sexual into their product display under the myth that sex actually does increase sales.

To the joy of Nok Air management (I am guessing primarily men), the campaign received over 200,000 “Likes” on Facebook, but does that prove anything other than people literally liked what they saw and ignores the fact that if Thai Airways offers a ticket for less money, people will choose that over a great pair of legs?

So why continue the age old ploy?

As early as the 1920’s advertisers have perpetuated the myth that sex sells, even on items as innocuous as tire stem valve caps. While there might be some phallic connection to be made by armchair psychologists or amateur comedians over tire stems, there is little to back up the belief that sexually suggestive imagery influences how people will cap pressure coming from their stem.

According to Dr. Renee Garfinkle, writing in Psychology Today, the “sexiniess” of an ad might very well attract the passing eye, but interestingly, the sexier the display is, the less likely the viewer will remember it.

Garfinkle writes:

“In fact, what a visual hint of sex will accomplish, a visual barrage of sex can destroy. Not long ago, researchers at Iowa State University found that viewers of programs with sexually explicit or violent content were less likely to remember commercials immediately after watching and even 24 hours later.”

The Iowa study found that the majority of people aged 18-54 who saw ads while watching sexual or violent TV content were less likely to remember the advertised products than those who saw ads while watching “neutral” programming.

Another study by the University of Southern California, called Can Victoria’s Secret change the future?, finds that sexual imagery related to a product, while garnering a person’s immediate attention and literally increasing people’s “views,” in the end, just leaves them feeling frustrated.

So, for now, the jury is still out as to the effectiveness of sex in pushing products. But it’s nice that the ladies working at Asiana can choose what they want to wear. And they should have that right—especially considering management’s obvious intent to increase ticket sales by exploiting the employee’s body.

To the industry’s credit, I suppose, they at least offer role-playing seminars on how flight attendants can best reject propositions while in flight. But isn’t that really a case of dressing up the buffet table to near-perfection and then training the staff how to tackle you before you can fill your plate? The contradictions abound on the outbound and the inbound.

At any rate, the next time you are booking a ticket you can judge for yourself: are you going pass on Asiana because there will be fewer skirts? Or is it really all about the peanuts?

This week, Korea-based Asiana Airlines finally gave in to union and human right group’s demands and will allow flight attendants the option to wear trousers rather than skirts. Last month, Thailand’s Nok Air started a new campaign with flight attendants in bikinis. The question remains, does any of it influence your purchase?

Case Study: An Airline Ad

Here is an interesting example as to the mindset of advertising agencies and the company’s that pay them. Watch the ad and notice, there are practically no men in it —just an ongoing stream of sexy women in different countries that Korean Air flies to and, that you can, through the purchase of a ticket, possibly meet.

Perhaps more telling is the imagery of the men in the ad.

Guy One: A janitor cleaning what appears to be an empty high-rise office. Outside the window, a giant woman paints red lipstick on her lips. He’s interested. As the shot moves outdoors to the giant woman, we see that she is using the building as a mirror. Sorry guy, she doesn’t see you anyway and she’s off to date a non-janitor. And why are you cleaning an already immaculate empty office?

Guy Two: Straddling a bridge in Seoul, he walks toward another hot girl trying to maintain his balance so he can “cross that bridge,” while Seoul Tower stand fully erect piercing the sky. And the left hand side of the bridge doesn’t know what the right hand side of the bridge is doing.

Guy Three: Shall we have dinner over my phallic symbol? Why not? This whole date is on the fly anyway, and I didn’t have to pay for your seat.

Side note: As is often the case in Korean ads, none of the women enticing you is actually Asian. Even in the Asian countries being featured. Some of the flight attendants are Asian, yes, but none of the women being held up as sex symbols are. That’s just weird.

Basically, the Israeli ambassador gave Kronish and his Korean wife Keum-won the marching orders, but not the government funding, so he had to practically go door to door in Israel raising funds and acquiring exhibit material.

According to a recent Jerusalem Post article, around 40,000 Koreans visited Israel in 2012, more than any other Asian country. Only 12,000 Israeli tourists reciprocated, which doesn’t sound significant until one recalls that Israel’s population is 7.6 million, roughly one seventh of South Korea’s.

The doc’s family has lived on the peninsula for four generations, and he describes himself as “a countryman from Suncheon,” which is where he spent most of his boyhood following his birth in North Jeolla Province in 1959.

While I like to think myself a reasonably intelligent person, it turns out I will never understand the meaning of “jeong” –the uniquely Korean feeling of kinship to both each other and objects, that cannot be translated into English and, says the doc, can only be deciphered by Koreans.

Linton, who describes himself as “Korean to the bone” and has drank heavily of the ondol-aid, is one those fortunate enough to grasp it:

Jeong is a very particular sentimental attitude that is without equivalence in other countries of the world. It is unique to Korea. It is difficult to translate into English because it is a special one that goes beyond mere affection and loyalty.

And while the rest of the world is segregated from the knowing, we are at least welcome to visit:

Korea has a virtuous tradition of offering warm hospitality for guests. For instance, the current immigration office has been teaching languages, providing places for wedding ceremonies and hosting bazaar events for multicultural families, which is hardly seen in any other nations.

As far as embracing multiculturalism, California, with its government-published driver’s handbook printed in Chinese, Russian, Tagalog, Korean, Spanish and Vietnamese, might argue with Linton’s assertion. But, as a nominal Californian myself, I won’t bore you with that which you most likely could not understand –unless you’ve lived in the Golden State.

Perhaps I am simply jealous due to my inherent incomprehension of jeong, but there is a hint of consolation.

Unlike other emotions, such as depression, anger, and anxiety, jeong is not entirely definable even in the Korean language; it is ambiguous and amorphous. The best description is that jeong has multiple faces.

Thankfully, Chung and Cho do take a crack at it in their paper –thus allowing me some insight:

Jeong is difficult to define. One Korean-English dictionary defines it as “feeling, love, sentiment, passion, human nature, sympathy, heart.” Although it is complicated to introduce a clear definition of jeong, it seems to include all of the above as well as more basic feelings, such as attachment, bond, affection, or even bondage.

Well, there you go —I’m almost there, man. All I have to do is tackle the elusive concepts of “love,” “passion,” and “attachment” and boom, I might well get this jeong thing down.

Before I get carried away, the paper does discuss the negative aspects of jeong and the pursuant “corrupt behaviors” of an “in-crowd versus out-crowd” mentality and how…

greater emphasis seems to be placed on loyalty, jeong, and commitment than in logic, reason, or the law in many Asian countries. The opposite seems to be true in Western culture.

Well, there you go. Again.

For some reason the article and my subsequent reading of the UCLA paper got me thinking about that line in The Avengers when Captain America is told that Thor and his brother Loki are “like gods,” to which the Cap’n replies: “There’s only one God, ma’am, and I’m pretty sure he doesn’t dress like that.”

At any rate, I am handy with chopsticks, I love kimchi and I eat chili peppers with the best of them. All of which, according to some of my Korean friends and associates makes me —regardless my understanding of jeong— “Korean”, too.

As for those times when they affix me with the label upon seeing my love of chili peppers, I usually reply: “No, you are Mexican.”

Like this:

Tempers flared as protests erupted leading up to the signing of the KORUS FTA one year ago. Early numbers indicate a lot of people may have been better off staying at home. (PHOTO USA-Today)

This week will mark one year since the KORUS FTA signing. Far too soon for either side to go popping corks, but those popping off about the devastating damage it would do to the South Korean economy might want to look at the early trade numbers. It would seem Korea is doing fine.

According to government data, South Korea’s exports to the U.S. reached US$53.8 billion between March 2012 and January 2013, up 2.67 percent from a year earlier, while imports dropped 7.35 percent on-year to reach $39.1 billion over the cited period. South Korea enjoyed a trade surplus of $14.7 billion during the cited period, up 44 percent from a year earlier, the data showed.

I am no economist, but 44% is a decent gain, right?

Another Yonhap report said that U.S. imports from all countries rose 3 percent in January, while imports from Korea soared 18 percent. And, according to a Korean commerce official:

Lowered tariffs allowed local firms to sell their products overseas at lower prices, raising the competitiveness of those companies.

This is not to say that sectors of the SK economy are not taking a hit. I haven’t seen the complete numbers, but American oranges are doing well –up 30% over last year on $150 million in sales– along with cherries jumping 80% to $80 million.

That aside, the South Korean auto industry looks to be benefiting quite well from the pact. (Though it should be noted, Americans have more money to spend than last year.)

Vehicle exports to the U.S. gained 21 percent on-year to $10.22 billion over the cited period, while vehicle imports almost doubled to $720 million…Auto parts, among others, benefited most from the trade pact with exports to the U.S. rising 12.6 percent to $5.23 billion, according to the data.

That’s $10 billion in Korean cars being sold in the U.S. versus $720 million in American cars being sold in the ROK. Once again, I ‘m not an economist but…

On a side note, things are not going so well –or maybe they are– with the Korean-EU FTA, says Hankyoreh. They claim that the numbers out of Brussels and those out of Seoul are painting different pictures of who is getting the most out of their trade pact.